Employee Health & Safety and Regulatory Manager in Polk City, Florida at Real Cold

At RealCold, you're more than an employee, you’re part of a team that's building the future of cold chain logistics. We invest in our people by providing opportunities to learn, grow, and advance while fostering a culture built on integrity, accountability, safety, and continuous improvement. Build your career with a company that's growing—and helping its people grow along with it. If you're ready to grow your career with a company that's growing too, we'd love to meet you.

Role Overview:
The Employee Health and Safety and Regulatory Manager is responsible for leading and maintaining RealCold’s facilities employee health and safety, food safety, quality, and regulatory compliance programs within a temperature-controlled food storage and distribution environment. This role serves as a key leader in ensuring the facility operates in compliance with OSHA, FDA, SQF, customer-specific requirements, and applicable federal, state, and local regulations. The Manager will have primary responsibility for the development, implementation, monitoring, and continuous improvement of all facilities’ Safety and Quality Management Systems, while also driving a proactive safety culture focused on preventing workplace injuries and regulatory non-compliance. The ideal candidate combines strong knowledge of food safety and practical employee safety experience and can effectively partner with Operations, Facilities, People Operations, and customers to drive accountability and continuous improvement.

In a coach-leader position, the incumbent provides strategic oversight, sets standards, leads through influence, and serves as the boots on the ground safety leader.

Essential Functions and Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the company’s Employee Health & Safety program, fostering a proactive safety culture and ensuring employees and leaders understand their responsibility for workplace safety.
• Maintains in-depth knowledge of current and changing regulations and safety requirements as well as monitoring and assuring the company’s compliance with existing and forthcoming federal, state, and local employment laws and regulations.
• Ensure compliance with applicable OSHA and state safety requirement.
• Conduct regular facility safety inspections, hazard assessments, and job safety analysis.
• Identify workplace hazards and partner with Operations and Facilities to implement effective corrective actions.
• Develop and deliver safety training, including onboarding, refresher, job-specific, and regulatory training.
• Manage the facility's injury, illness, incident, near-miss, and hazard reporting processes.
• Lead investigations of workplace injuries, incidents, near misses, and safety concerns; identify root causes and implement corrective actions.
• Monitor safety performance metrics and develop action plans to reduce injuries, incidents, and unsafe behaviors.
• Support the facility's emergency preparedness and response programs, including evacuation, severe weather, chemical exposure, fire, medical emergencies, and other applicable scenarios.
• Ensure appropriate PPE programs are established, maintained, and consistently followed.
• Partner with Facilities and Operations on machine guarding, lockout/tagout, powered industrial trucks, ergonomics, and other applicable OSHA programs.
• Support safety requirements associated with refrigeration systems, ammonia and/or CO2, cold-temperature environments, and other facility-specific hazards.
• Conduct or coordinate required safety inspections, testing, training, and regulatory reporting.
• Maintain OSHA logs, incident records, and required EHS documentation.

Training & Employee Engagement

• Develop and maintain an annual EHS Training Calendar.
• Deliver training in a manner appropriate for both salaried and hourly employees, including bilingual training materials where appropriate.
• Ensure employees understand their responsibilities related to food safety, product quality, personal hygiene, GMPs, sanitation, workplace safety, and reporting requirements.
• Partner with People Operations and Operations to incorporate safety and food safety expectations into new-hire onboarding.
• Promote employee engagement in safety and food safety programs through safety observations, employee reporting, recognition, toolbox talks, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Coach supervisors and managers on their responsibilities for enforcing safety and food safety standards.

Compliance & Audit Management

• Maintain audit readiness at all times rather than preparing only for scheduled audits.
• Coordinate regulatory, SQF, and third-party audits.
• Lead preparation for SQF certification and recertification audits.
• Respond to audit findings and ensure corrective actions are completed within required timelines.
• Maintain an organized and accessible compliance documentation system.
• Track regulatory and certification requirements and ensure the facility remains in good standing.
• Develop and present compliance reports and recommendations to facility leadership.

Continuous Improvement & Leadership

• Establish measurable objectives and KPIs for safety, food safety, quality, and compliance.
• Analyze trends and use data to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Develop and implement corrective and preventive action plans based on trends, audits, incidents, complaints, and observations.
• Partner with Operations to integrate safety and food safety into daily operating practices rather than treating them as separate compliance functions.
• Participate in management review meetings and provide leadership with regular reporting on EHS, food safety, quality, and compliance performance.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives that improve employee safety, product integrity, customer satisfaction, and operational performance.
• Promote a culture where safety, food safety, quality, and accountability are everyone's responsibility.

Key Performance Indicators
The Manager will be accountable for establishing and monitoring metrics such as:

• Employee Health & Safety
• OSHA Recordable Incident Rate
• Lost-Time/Days Away Cases
• Near-Miss Reporting
• Safety Observation Completion
• Corrective Action Closure Rate
• Safety Training Completion
• Workers' Compensation Trends
• Regulatory Compliance

Requirements of the Position:

• Bachelor’s degree in environmental health & safety, Quality or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in quality, EHS, food safety, or a combination of these disciplines.
• Experience working in a food storage, cold storage, logistics, or similar regulated environment.
• Working knowledge of OSHA requirements and workplace safety programs.
• Experience with ammonia or CO2 refrigeration environments.
• Experience preparing for and participating in third-party or regulatory audits.
• Demonstrated experience conducting investigations, root-cause analysis, and CAPA.
• Strong documentation, organizational, and analytical skills.
• Ability to influence and coach employees and leaders at all levels.

Preferred

• Strong knowledge of SQF and HACCP principles.
• SQF Practitioner certification or ability to obtain certification within a defined timeframe.
• HACCP certification.
• OSHA 30-hour certification.
• Bilingual English/Spanish skills. Work Requirements:
• Must possess a valid US driver’s license.
• Must be able to pass a pre-employment drug test and background check.
• Ability to work well under pressure.
• Ability to travel approximately 50% to support multi-site operations.
• Flexibility to work extended hours or weekends as business needs dictate.

Work Environment:
This position operates in a cold-storage warehouse environment and routinely interacts with employees, contractors, customers, auditors, and facility leadership. The role requires frequent walking throughout refrigerated and freezer areas, exposure to varying temperatures, warehouse equipment, powered industrial trucks, loading docks, and other operational hazards.

Physical Demands: This is not an all-inclusive list, but it is intended to give an overview physical requirement for this position. Reasonable accommodation will be provided under appropriate circumstances and in accordance with applicable law. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to:

• Stand/Walk: Ability to stand and walk for extended periods while conducting facility inspections, audits, observations, and employee interactions.
• Climb: Ability to climb stairs, ladders, platforms, and dock access points as necessary to inspect equipment, work areas, and facility conditions
• Bend/Kneel: Ability to bend, stoop, kneel, crouch, and reach when inspecting equipment, storage areas, emergency equipment, spill areas, and workplace conditions.
• Lift/Carry: Ability to occasionally lift and carry safety equipment generally up to 50 pounds.
• Push/Pull: Ability to push or pull doors, carts, equipment, and other workplace items.
• Reach: Ability to reach overhead and in various directions to inspect safety equipment, signage, emergency systems, storage areas, and other workplace conditions.
• Visibility: Ability to visually inspect workplace conditions, equipment, labels, signage, safety devices, products, and documentation. Corrective lenses may be used.
• Hear: Ability to hear alarms, horns, equipment warnings, vehicle traffic, radio communications, and verbal instructions in a warehouse environment
• Drive: Ability to operate a company vehicle or rental vehicle when required
• Work at Heights: Ability to access elevated work areas when required, consistent with training and applicable fall-protection requirements.
• Navigate Warehouse Traffic: Ability to safely navigate areas with forklifts, pallet jacks, trucks, dock equipment, and other industrial equipment.
• Emergency Response: Ability to respond promptly to workplace emergencies, including spills, injuries, evacuations, fires, chemical/ammonia releases, and other incidents, consistent with the assigned emergency-response responsibilities and training.
• PPE: Ability to properly wear required PPE, which may include safety glasses, hearing protection, safety footwear, hard hat, high-visibility apparel, gloves, and cold-weather PPE.

What We Offer You:
Comprehensive benefits package to include medical, dental, vision, HSA, FSA, Short- and Long-Term Disability, and Life Insurance, 401(k) Match, and Paid Time Off

RealCold is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. We believe in providing employment opportunities to all Team Members and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.